Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The gospel promised us last week that Christ will make us fishers of men. This is especially needed today when people are surrounded by the fear of death. We can help them by loving them. It is the only way. Also by the grace of God, by not being afraid ourselves of the things that bother us or kill us. When others see that someone lives without fear it helps!
The gospel today is still in the first chapter of Mark and Jesus does an exorcism. This man is possessed by an unclean spirit, the spirit of the world you can say, but it controls him. It is curious to see that we find this man in a synagogue, of all places. Also in churches we find people who have an unclean spirit or a demon. They may want to appear good. They have their certificate that says: I am good. But often their reality is different.
When you and I see that we have a demon (because we love money or cannot control our anger or envy or whatever) what should we do? Ask the Lord to take it away. An unclean spirit impedes our ability to love, to do the will of God. We easily become a slave to this spirit.
The people are amazed that Jesus teaches with authority. It does not mean that he speaks loud or emphasizes the words correctly. He speaks with the authority of the truth. He is the truth. In Hebrew the word for ‘word’ (Dabar) also means action. You can smell it when someone speaks with authority. Their words and their actions are consistent. They live what they say. It is not like someone who speaks about charity and then does the opposite.
St. Francis said that evangelization is to see that the words we say live in us. Often at times we say God loves you, but our actions say I hate you or I am indifferent to you. It is true we cannot love on our own strength and we need to ask for God’s help to be a Christian, but my words have to followed up in my actions. Preaching has to be accompanied by how I live my life. All of us preach even if we don’t go to church. We preach by how we live and speak and act. At the time of St. Francis the clergy was very materialistic, which is similar today, and the people didn’t listen. But when they saw how Francis and his followers lived on nothing, they listened and followed. Hell is full of good preachers whose lives are not consistent with their words.
When people see a Christian they cannot remain indifferent. We can pray: Lord, take out of me this unclean spirit and give me your Holy Spirit so I can love, show mercy and forgive. I no longer want to be a slave to this spirit; I want your spirit which I know will give me peace.